


Honey

by neverwantedtodance



Category: Free!
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Humor, Existential Crisis, Fluff and Angst, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Post-Canon, Rin's Dramatic Monologues™, feat. rin's awful eating habits and sleep schedual, makoto being a literal Saint, there's just a lot of ambiguity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 13:51:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5250527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverwantedtodance/pseuds/neverwantedtodance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rin has his mid-life crisis, Makoto is the first person he calls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honey

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a semi-dark comedy with fluff but then??? idk what happened???  
> the angst train made an unexpected stop and i was undeniably its bitch  
> i don't exactly know if this is good or not ...  
> but don't worry there is a happy ending  
> you'll just have to read to find out ;)

“I need your help,” is the first thing he gasps out as soon as Makoto picks up the phone.

“What is it?” he asks, genuinely worried. Rin didn’t even greet him with a traditional ‘yo’ so it must be something serious.

“I think I’m having a crisis. Of the mid-life variety. And I don’t know what to do.”

There’s a moment of silence.

“ … You’re 25, Rin,” he tries to say as gently as possible.

He can practically feel Rin scowling down the phone at him. “I thought you of all people would understand,” he hisses, and Makoto resist the urge to chuckle. He’d missed Rin’s dramatic antics. They hadn’t spoken much since Rei’s birthday a month ago.

“Okay, I’m sorry. I believe you.”

Rin takes this as a sign he can continue, and Makoto simply listens.

“Anyway, your point helps - I’m nearly twenty-six. I’m a world-class athlete. I’ve got four shiny gold medals in a cabinet in my massive house. Frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with the perfection that is my life.”

“Do go on,” Makoto says dryly.

“Er, sorry. Anyway, I don’t understand what’s going on – I can barely sleep or eat properly, and not even swimming makes me feel any better.”

Makoto sits up straight. This may be more serious than he thought.

“How soon can you get to my house?” he asks, not caring that once again he’s interrupting.

Again, silence. Rin laughs awkwardly.

“What would you say if I said I’m on the train to Iwatobi as we speak?”

Makoto narrows his eyes. “I’d say that’s a very quiet train.”

“ … I really can’t read your mood right now.”

“I’ll give you three guesses.”

“Happiness at seeing your childhood best friend?”

“Haru isn’t here right now.” He smirks. He can’t tease Rin for long. Sooner or later he always feels bad, even though he knows his friend never takes

“You cut me deep, Makoto.”

“I just expected a little less spur-of-the-moment decision,” he says with a shrug, even though Rin can’t see him. After thinking about it, he smiles. This is the man who dragged Haru to Australia without a second thought.

“Hey, maybe spur-of-the-moment is exactly what I need right now,” Rin says.

Before the conversation can continue, Makoto hears the shuffling of bags and the tell-tale voice of the train announcer.

“Looks like I’ll see you soon Makoto,” Rin says cheekily, before hanging up.

Makoto sighs.

Looks like he’ll have to set up the guest bed.

* * *

Rin arrives at his door in a flurry of plaid shirt, red hair, and expensive leather suitcases.

“Miss me?” He smiles, that same feral smile used before races he knows he’s going to win, and holds out his arms slightly. Makoto tries to tease, but he’s never been good at brushing over his feelings in moments like these. He goes for genuine instead. He thinks Rin will appreciate it more.

“Maybe just a little bit,” he says, and pulls him into a hug that goes on for a little bit longer than he intended. It couldn’t be helped, due to Rin clinging onto his back like he was his life-force.

When they part, Rin’s face is almost as red as his hair.

He takes in a deep breath. “Yeah, I think the country air is exactly what I needed.”

Makoto scoffs, picking up Rin’s bags.

“I’d hardly call this the country.”

As he takes the suitcases indoors he mulls over what impression he’s got from Rin so far. He seemed pretty normal, if a bit more arrogant. Certainly not like someone suffering from a so-called crisis.

But whatever. Makoto had said he believed him, so that’s how he’d act.

Rin followed him inside.

“Call it whatever you want,” he said as he took off his shoes, “i need a break and you’re the first person I thought of.”

Makoto’s heart does a flip.

“Flattering,” he manages to say.

* * *

The madness starts at two in the morning.

He’d been dozing in and out of sleep since half eleven, his brain too busy thinking about how suddenly Rin was back, bolder than in memories - but then he was fully awoken by a strange, slightly muffled scrabbling noise.

Fearing the worst, he internally debated getting out of bed for five minutes. He then remembered Rin, and, seeing him depicted as more vulnerable in his mind, decides to suck it up and go downstairs.

Not without a weapon in hand though.

Grabbing a hole puncher from one of the shelves, he stealthily makes his way down the stairs (being wary of the one fourth from the bottom which creaks only when you place your left foot a certain way). The noise gets louder and louder and his grip on the hole puncher becomes fiercer.

Squinting to see in the dark, he makes his way to what he believes to be the source of the sound: the kitchen.

He flicks on the light switch and raises his arm in what he hopes to be a threatening defensive position.

Standing there is … not what he expected.

Standing there is Rin, his hand halfway between a bag of dried banana chips and his mouth, like a child caught stealing chocolate, and only wearing a pair of plaid (of course) pyjama pants.

Makoto’s arm drops to his side, limp. They stare at each other for a moment, neither moving.

Makoto sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Rin,” he says, “it is two in the morning.”

“I told you I was having a crisis.”

Makoto merely nods, but it’s looks like he’s started Rin off on one of his trademark Dramatic Angry Rants.

“You didn’t believe me, did you? Well I bet - ” The atmosphere is ruined as he yawns, which sets Makoto off as well.

“Please go to bed,” he says, and Rin simply sighs in defeat, puts down the bag, and trudges past Makoto remorsefully.

Later on, he’ll put this next move down to subconscious instinct, but really, he had no idea what he was thinking.

He places a gentle hand on the small of Rin’s back, and guides him up the stairs, not even caring when it makes him stumble and the fourth stair creaks, and into the guest bedroom.

Rin says nothing, just turns his head and smiles at Makoto.

When he gets back to his own room, he falls face down on the bed. It’s going to be a long night.

He hopes this doesn’t become the regular.

* * *

He nearly falls asleep in the pool while teaching the latest bunch of enthusiastic kids backstroke, which really isn’t good for his reputation.

After being up all night due to (what he’s secretly dubbing in his head) The Great Banana Incident, he really didn’t think he would survive the work day, especially as it was a Monday. He was up for the rest of the night thinking about Rin.

But, he surprisingly does survive, and even better, endures teasing from his colleagues.

It’s after the fifth time he yawns that Nanaka says something.

“Late night?” she asks, with a caring smile.

She’s older than him and also maternal in attitude, and she teaches the more advanced kids.

He blushes and chuckles. “Yeah, I have a friend staying with me and … ” He trails off, uncertain about how to describe Run to his co-workers. He doesn’t even know where he’d start. It’s a toss-up between ‘cries a lot’, ‘shark teeth’, and ‘dramatic eater’. He’s not sure which one’s more apt.

“Oh, I see. Up late with a ‘friend’,” Fumiko, the teen lifeguard, says with a wicked smirk, and Makoto doesn’t like the infliction in her voice.

He frowns slightly. “Yeah, he only just got to Iwatobi yesterday … We spent a lot of time catching up.” He tells a quick lie, hoping it’ll save his skin.

“I bet you were catching up, all right,” Shou, the diving instructor says with a laugh.

Makoto’s sure his ears are red by now.

“Hush,” Nanaka flicks a towel at them, and they quiet. It’s an unspoken rule that a towel flick means serious business.

“Now Makoto,” she continues, “whatever you do in your own time is okay - ”

He groans, slumping over his desk.

* * *

He left Rin a list of groceries so he’d have something to get done, but when he arrives back at his house, he’s surprised at what he sees.

Rin is asleep. This is definitely improvement, judging by what he said on the phone and the constant tossing and turning Makoto heard last night while he himself was restless.

However, there is a slight problem.

He’s asleep in _Makoto’s_ bed. And there are no new groceries.

Despite himself, he smiles softly at the sight before him.

He didn’t really need those groceries straight away anyway.

* * *

Their routine continues as such for the next four days. Makoto goes to work, comes back, and waits for Rin to wake up. Then, he’ll eat a meal and Rin will push food around his plate, they’ll watch a TV show, and go to bed. Makoto will drift off, Rin will pretend to sleep. In the early hours of the morning he’ll wake, drag Rin away from his snack and back to bed. Rinse and repeat.

And every day he always comes home to find Rin sound asleep on his bed.

The one thing they don’t ever do is talk about Rin’s ‘crisis’. They talk about pretty much everything _but_ that.

He doesn’t know what Rin does during the day or if this little vacation is even helping him. Rin never talks about it, and Makoto doesn’t have the courage to ask.

He doesn’t even know why Rin is even here, why Rin chose him to come to first.

He guesses he’ll just wait.

* * *

“Let’s go to the beach,” Rin says over breakfast on Saturday morning.

Makoto’s spoon heaped with porridge pauses on the way to his mouth.

“Isn’t it a bit cold? You won’t be able to swim.”

Rin shrugs. “I know. I just want to go. I’ve got a feeling.”

“Okay … ” he says slowly, unsurely, “what kind of feeling?”

Rin shrugs again, and Makoto sighs. He gets the feeling he’s not going to be getting a straight answer out of Rin anytime soon. It’s not like he’s ever denied his friends anything.

He smiles shakily, still a bit nervous.

“Okay,” he repeats, “I’ll make us some food. And we’ll bring blankets and get coffee.”

The smile Rin gives him in return is so blinding, he feels that however cold he’ll be will be worth it.

* * *

Rin spends a lot of time staring at the water as opposed to being in it.

Makoto watches him from the towel he’s set down. His toes are digging into the sand and so are his fingers, the minuscule grains sliding through the gaps.

He feels like the sand is seeping into his bones; already he’s eaten a sandwich that felt like it was half filled with the stupid stuff.

They’re been here for almost two hours already, and Rin’s barely moved in the last forty-five minutes. The weather is also arctic. Makoto shivers.

Rin’s presence this week has been unusual. Although it’s not unlike Rin to bottle up all his feelings and stay silent, he’s still surprised that Rin could seem so ready to talk on the phone, yet clam up the instant he got to Iwatobi. He guesses that’s why he’s acting even more big-headed than usual.

They never even talk about their night time food fiascos in the daytime. It’s almost as if Rin seems to completely close off from him.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts suddenly by Rin, who’s walked over to him.

“Do you want to go for a walk?”

Makoto smiles. “Sure,” he says, and rejects Rin’s helping hand, choosing instead to brave the sand once again and get his hands dirty. He makes quick work of packing up their stuff, and then they set off, parallel to the sea, holding their shoes and socks in one hand and shivering slightly.

“It’s a nice day,” Rin says out of nowhere, and Makoto can tell he’s about to start rambling, because it’s an obvious lie: the weather has been abysmal today, windy and chilly and cloudy. Definitely not beach weather. But they’re here nonetheless.

“Do you think we should get ice cream? I feel like that’s something we should do. Normally I don’t like sweet things but - ”

“Rin, are you … feeling okay?” Makoto asks, wincing at his own awkwardness.

Rin stops in his tracks for a split second, then continues. He laughs, but it’s not humorous.

“Look at me, Makoto, do I look like I’m okay?”

And Makoto does. He takes a good, long look.

Rin’s hair is being whipped around by the strong wind, but you can clearly see there are dark circles under his eyes, a mixture of purple and black and brown and blue.

Makoto sighs. “I guess we can get ice cream.” He manages a weak smile, and Rin returns one, but he can tell that they’re not finished talking about this.

“Great! I saw a place a bit further back. It should still be open. Who knows why anyone would want ice cream in this weather … ”

Makoto shakes his head and sighs at the irony of Rin’s words, but before he can comment on them he’s distracted by the feeling of Rin’s hand in his own gloved ones, as he’s dragged back to the other side of the beach.

He blushes. Rin’s hands are cold, and all he can think is that there is one layer between them, one layer stopping his bare skin from touching Rin’s.

“I’m going to get vanilla.” Rin decides as they reach a small ice cream parlour.

“That’s like the sweetest flavour. Are you sure you hate stuff like that?” Makoto asks.

Rin clicks his tongue at him. “You’re rude.”

Makoto laughs. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He orders vanilla as well. He has to take his gloves off to eat from the bowel, and now his mind is ablaze thinking of whether Rin will touch him once more now that there are no materialistic barriers between them.

He doesn’t want to get his hopes up though.

He busies himself with worrying about how the ice cream is probably one of the most substantial things Rin’s eaten in a long time.

In the end, they end up staying at the beach longer than he thought they would. They’re both coaxed into the water after a while, though only ankle deep. The icy water practically bruises them with its harshness.

The walk back to his house is silent, Makoto focused on the sunset and Rin on whatever thoughts are swirling through his mind.

He remembers that he never actually finished talking to Rin about his feelings.

But, watching Rin desperately try to fix his windswept hair in the mirror while get sand out of every single area of his body is a happy sight he definitely doesn’t want to ruin.

* * *

As usual, he wakes at quarter to three. It’s almost as if his body has naturally adjusted to waking up at this time. He hopes he doesn’t start doing this automatically.

Rubbing his eyes with his hand to wake himself up, he heads downstairs. Now he doesn’t even bother to avoid the creaky step; he sees it as a way to let Rin know he’s on his way.

Tonight, he finds Rin draped in a chair, holding a bottle of cheap wine Makoto didn’t even know he had,  and cutting up a block of cheddar cheese.

He leans against the doorframe. “You’ve got quite a feast tonight,” he says in a low voice.

Rin doesn’t even flinch. He gestures to the cheese. “Wine and cheese. As you can see, I’m a sophisticated member of society.”

Makoto stifles a chuckle with a yawn. “I don’t think this is really what I’d call sophisticated.”

Rin shrugs. “You’re right. I’m really pathetic.”

Makoto smiles at him. “Just a little bit.”

Rin sighs. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he mutters.

Makoto walks over to him, assessing how much wine Rin’s drunk, and estimating he’s about a quarter in.

Better to put a stop to this now.

He swiftly snatches the bottle from Rin’s hands, and for good measure takes a sip himself.

“You’re rude,” Rin says again. Makoto sighs.

“Let’s just go to bed.” He can’t be bothered to clean things up right now. He’s too occupied with thoughts of Rin.

“Sure thing, Mako,” Rin mumbles, and he can’t help but smile.

Rin raised his hands and makes a beckoning motion, and Makoto approaches him cautiously, not sure where he’s going with this.

Rin grabs hold of his hands and uses them to pull himself up. He doesn’t let go, just drags Makoto behind him as they walk up the stairs.

He hums, unsure about where he wants to take this. There’s so much he needs to say to Rin, so much he wants to express, and he’s having what he’s privately going to call a Haru Moment – the words are all there in his head, it’s just getting them out that’s the problem.

Actions did always speak louder than words though.

When they reach the top of the stairs Rin turns to go to the guest room and lets go of his hands, but Makoto quickly snatches them up again.

“Let’s go to bed,” he repeats again, and leads Rin into his own room.

“Are you trying to take advantage of my drunken state?” Rin whispers into the night, but he doesn’t resist Makoto’s touch as he pushes him gently backwards until his knees hit the mattress. He sits down, resigned.

“You sleep better on my bed,” Makoto says softly, still holding Rin’s hands.

Rin blushed. Makoto could just make it out in the darkness of the bedroom, with the only light coming through a small gap in the curtains.

“I didn’t think you’d noticed.”

Makoto wants to say something else, but Rin hushes him, rolling onto the bed and obediently closing his eyes. Naturally, he takes us the most space in the middle. He doesn’t even get under the covers.

“I’m going to bed now. Goodnight, Makoto,” he says, a yawn interrupting his speech.

Makoto huffs out a laugh, sliding under the covers, and trying to budge Rin over.

“You’re a terrible bed mate,” he whispers. There’s so much more that needs to be said, but when he sees Rin open one eye and smile at him, he reckons he got the message.

“And I told you to be quiet. I’m trying to get my beauty sleep.”

“Not that you need it,” Makoto mutters, feeling his cheeks flush red as soon as he speaks.

There’s silence.

“Flattering.” Rin echoes Makoto’s words from earlier in the week, and Makoto thinks about how he and Rin have always been on the same wavelength effortlessly, maybe not in the same way as they were with Haru, but there was no question about it. They fit together with ease.

There’s silence, and after a while he reckons Rin’s fallen asleep, but then he speaks once more into the dark.

“You’re wondering why I came to you first, aren’t you?” He pauses. “Well, why wouldn’t I?”

He goes to sleep with a smile on his face.

* * *

When he wakes, it’s to red eyes almost uncomfortably close to his face.

Rin’s staring at him with an expression he can’t place. If he had to guess, he’d say fondness.

When he sees Makoto’s awoken, he looks away, blush tinting his cheeks.

“Did you sleep well?” Makoto asks.

Rin grasps his hand suddenly, and laces their fingers together.

For a moment, he thinks he’s not going to answer, but then he looks him in the eye.

“Yeah,” he says with a smile, “I slept great.”

And Makoto smiles back.

**Author's Note:**

> this nearly physically destroyed me to write but i did it for the sweet sweet makorin  
> please leave kudos and comments telling me what you liked  
> and maybe i'll write more makorin being dumbasses in the future  
> (i know i have another makorin go to the beach and angst it out oneshot in the works oops)  
> thanks for reading!


End file.
